Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the The Planted Tank Forum forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Location

Your Location. As precise as you feel comfortable with.

Security Question

While balancing on a piece of wood, two inches by four inches known as a 2x4, John and his friend Sally both spotted a dalmatian inside of a truck with sirens. The animal with John and Sally is a _ _ _?

Insurance

Please select your insurance company (Optional)

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.

Additional Options

Miscellaneous Options

Automatically parse links in text

Topic Review (Newest First)

02-24-2014 02:35 AM

Karackle

Actually, I hate to break it to you, but it's just Bolbitis with some algae on it that looks red with my second light on that has a pink hue to it, I use it for pictures because it brings out the color of the fish, but it makes that algae look at reddish for whatever reason.

02-23-2014 01:47 AM

du3ce

looks like pinnafitida

02-22-2014 11:54 PM

raptor87

whats the plant in the back with the red leaves? can you get it locally?

02-10-2014 02:15 AM

Karackle

Update time! The tank is doing well, the Beckford's Pencilfish and the CPD have adjusted very well to their new home. I removed the Zebra danios to the 60g tank. They are doing very well in the 60g tank and I see everyone in the 30g tank out and about much more often now. So I think it was the right decision.

I rearranged the DW with the Java ferns on it that I moved to this tank from the 10g but I am not sure I love it still. Let me know what you think!

Pictures:

01-12-2014 06:49 PM

Karackle

Uh oh, I think I have a bully in my tank.

So I have always enjoyed just watching my fish tanks from time to time as one might watch a TV. At my old apartment, my roommate used to think I was weird because she would come home at lunch time and find me there sitting in a chair in front of my fish tank eating a sandwich sometimes. Over the past few years, I have barely managed to keep my tanks running smoothly (luckily for super low tech tanks, they mostly take care of themselves). More recently, I have been working from home a lot to finish my masters thesis, and have had some time to get the tanks cleaned up a bit. I have also been very stressed out between trying to finish up my thesis and find a job and apply to another graduate program (a part time one). So, I have been making time to pull up a chair and just watch the fish, because I have always found that very relaxing.

Anyway, the point is, I noticed I have a bully in my tank. I think. I have 2 zebra danios in my tank to help with guppy population control. I have been noticing that the male likes to chase all of the fish. Relentlessly. He will pursue them round and round the tank. Mostly he chases the female zebra danio, probably trying to mate with her. That doesn't bother me. But he also chases the female guppies a lot (I assume because they look very much like the leopard print female zebra danio). Sometimes they look rather stressed after a bout of chasing. Occasionally, I see him chase one of the male guppies, and a couple times I saw him chase the Beckford's Pencilfish (newer members of the tank, they got moved here last week when I broked down the 10g).

Should I move him? I can put him in my husband's 60g tank. Currently the only inhabitants are 3-5 black neon tetras, 2 albino blue-eyed bushy nosed plecos and 2 amano shrimp. He (we) will be restocking the tank soon with some kind of black and white fish. He will either go with some kind of tetra again, or possibly some black and white Mollies and / or Platies. If he goes with the livebearers, we will probably put a few zebra danios in the tank for population control anyway. Anyway, sorry I digress, the 60g stocking is not really the issue here.

Should I move the bully zebra danio to the 60g, or is some chasing relatively harmless?

01-10-2014 05:26 PM

Karackle

Just a quick update, so far all the rest of the fish seem to have adjusted well to their new home. All 6 pencils and the CPD are still doing well.

I also noticed there are a TON of baby guppies right now, and they are all a bit bigger than the "just dropped" stage. I hope a few of them survive, and at least one or two are males that get to adulthood. I need some more color in this tank.

I would love to get some more CPDs for this tank and some shrimp. I am thinking some Amanos and a Bamboo shrimp.

I am pretty understocked but heavily planted so I would love opinions on stocking possibilities (are my stocking ideas good? would you suggest something else? etc.)

01-06-2014 07:43 PM

Karackle

Unfortunately, one of the pencil's didn't make it through the tank transfer, though it is the one I had noticed had a bit of a sunken belly anyway, so I think he would have passed soon anyway.

It did make me realize it had been a long time since I dewormed the tank so I went ahead and did that and hopefully everyone else stays healthy.

I can't believe how often I see the little CPD in this tank! He swims with the guppies and the pencils. It's pretty awesome. I am going to try to get better pictures of him.

01-05-2014 05:41 AM

Karackle

Ok I have some more 30g updates AND pictures.

My tank glass was a MESS and getting in the way of taking good pictures

So I bought a magnetic algae scraper when I was getting a few other supplies I needed and got to work, I think it looks a bit better (also windexed the front glass)

And was able to get some better fish shots. Wanted to get some better ones of my 2 pretty adult male guppies (better shots of the pink and yellow one anyway, to showcase his colors better) and they were conveniently hanging out with the pretties girl I have too

hey why you keep putting that camera in our faces?

And the one CPD is comfortable enough with "his school" of pencilfish that he is already out and about and I tried to get a pictures, but this was the best I could manage

As for the other supplies I needed, when I was cleaning the tank I noticed my secondary small internal filter was not working, when I went to find the clog in the impeller I noticed the whole body of the motor was deformed. Yikes. Needless to say, I needed a new one. By sheer coincidence, I ended up with an almost identical one. I only use this filter for added circulation in the tank.

New filter

Looks familiar

Since it was the same filter (though probably 7 model years newer ) I saved the carbon in case I ever decide to use it and put the emptied carbon container turned filter floss holder I had been using in the filter instead.

And it went in the tank

but it's well hidden by the Bolbitis forest

And a clearer picture of the DW covered in Java ferns I transplanted here from the 10g yesterday

Enjoy, and thanks for looking!

01-04-2014 03:01 AM

Karackle

Was accidentally in a video mode that allows taking still images while filming and ended up with some video footage of the tanks. Figured I might as well post it

01-04-2014 12:23 AM

Karackle

Here are the pictures, as promised! Enjoy!!!

Full tank shots:

From the short ends:

And some close-ups of the plants added from the 10g:

And some other close-ups:

01-03-2014 10:01 PM

Karackle

Wow, I can't believe it has been over a year since I last posted here. It was a very busy year though, between school, working for my fellowship, and planning my wedding I have had a lot going on! This tank is doing well despite being mostly neglected other than the occasional pulling out of some algae (the green hairy / string kind) and removing the excess of floaters, I have mostly just let it be. The bolbitis continues to try and take over and the crypts and javas are doing very well.

Today I did a bit of an overhaul because I broke down my 10g tank, we needed the space to move some shelves from our desk there to make room on the desk for our new desktop computer. I regret to say I totally forgot to take pictures before the overhaul.

I removed as many of the floaters as I could, and took out some of the bolbitis that had creeped to the front of the tank. I then put my Java fern covered driftwood pieces from the 10g tank into this one, along with the large anubias that nestles nicely in the U of the DW. I also transplanted a few of the crypts into this tank.

This tank now has the 7 pencilfish and 1 CPD from the 10g as inhabitants along with the 2 zebra danios, guppies and oto or 2 that were already inhabitants.

I will pull out the new camera and take some pictures once the dust settles and post them up.

09-04-2012 05:13 PM

Karackle

Woops! Life got a little busy again!

Hahahaha no Vicki, you are definitely NOT the only one that does trimming on a spur of the moment basis....there are at least 2 of us

2 huge high tech tanks, I can't even imagine!!! too much work for me! I am amazed by those of you that pull it off though!

Few more weeks and it should remain cool enough for shipping!

08-23-2012 01:50 AM

Complexity

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who's trimming is basically a spur of the moment thing!

Yeah, one of the two high tech tanks is the 75g like before, but my 90g is also a high tech planted tank now. The two tanks have pretty much the same setup only the 90g is taller. I have no idea what I was thinking when I came up with the idea to have two large high tech tanks going, especially given my *lack* of trimming plans! LOL!

08-21-2012 02:12 AM

Karackle

Well I definitely have plenty of bolbitis right now, but I'll hold off on sending it to you for a little to a) let the weather cool off a bit and 2) juuusssst in case it decides to get angry and die off because I moved the whole thing slightly to the left while rescaping

And yes, I'm totally with you on the whole "oh wow this tank really needs trimming better do it now while I have a free moment....oh man....now i have all these healthy plants I don't really want to throw out but where the heck would I put them while I wait to see if someone wants to accept a RAOK?" thing. That's pretty much exactly the thought process I went through when I pulled out the floaters. Ah well. Maybe next time I'll notice it sooner. But probably not....I don't really plan either

TWO high tech tanks now?! I'll have to check out the journal on that!!! (I assume it's the 75g linked in your sig?)

08-20-2012 05:01 PM

Complexity

Later is fine. I'm in no hurry. Just PM me whenever you have extra that you'd like to part with. By all means, don't let go of any unless you have more than you can use in your tank.

I understand what you mean by wanting it out of the tank. I used to have a really hard time tossing perfectly good plant trimmings (some of which are huge) when I knew I could sell or RAOK them. But I often just don't have the time to mess with it. Since my mind isn't thinking that way, I tend to do my trimmings more on a spur of the moment basis just before a water change. That's when I realize that the plants are way overgrown and need to be trimmed back so I trim them on the spot. Selling and RAOKing requires more planning than I'm able to do right now, especially since I came up with the brilliant plan of having not one, but two large high tech tanks!

This thread has more than 15 replies.
Click here to review the whole thread.